Plymouth DA: Pot ballot question a deal for dealers

Wednesday

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz slammed the ballot question to decriminalize possession of a small amount of marijuana as a loophole for dealers to slip in under the radar.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz slammed the ballot question to decriminalize possession of a small amount of marijuana as a loophole for dealers to slip in under the radar.

“Drug dealers aren’t stupid. They’ll just carry less than an ounce,” said Cruz, who attended a press conference launching the campaign against Question 2 outside the capitol on Wednesday, Sept. 17 along with other district attorneys, mayors, officials from Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration and other opponents of the initiative.

Ballot Question 2 proposes to decriminalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, which Cruz said is no small potatoes. An ounce equates to about 30 to 60 joints with a total street value of $600.

He said a dealer could sell $600 worth of pot, go back and restock and then sell another $600 worth. Even if he gets caught twice, he makes $1,200 and only has to pony up $200 in fines instead of facing criminal charges.

That’s not much of a deterrent, Cruz said.

“It’s the cost of doing business,” he said.

The ballot question proposes to eliminate any criminal penalties for possession of an ounce or less of marijuana. Instead, offenders would be subject to civil penalties, in the form of a $100 citation, similar to a speeding ticket, Cruz said.

Offenders 18 and younger would also be required to complete a drug awareness program, according to Secretary of State William Galvin’s Web site.

That means it would still be a criminal offense to drink under the age of 21, but smoking pot would be a lesser, civil offense. That could well act as an incentive to smoke marijuana, Cruz said.

“It would be illegal for you to hold a beer in your hand and there would be criminal ramifications, but if this goes through, you could get caught with a joint, and there’s just a $100 fine,” Cruz said.
Under the proposal, it would still be illegal to sell and distribute pot. Cruz said that’s the worst of both worlds. There would no longer be as much of a deterrent to using pot, but people would still have to engage in high-risk behavior to obtain it.

“Kids won’t be going to Tedeschi’s to buy a joint. They’ll be going to drug dealers,” who tend to be dangerous people, Cruz said.

He pointed to the murder of 18-year-old Andrew Colwell of Mansfield this summer over a pot deal.
But the answer is certainly not full legalization of marijuana, Cruz said.

Cruz said he doesn’t buy the argument legalization would eliminate the ills associated with the drug by removing it from the realm of criminal activity. He said it’s more than a cliché to call pot a “gateway drug.”

“Talk to most addicts, and they didn’t start by sticking a needle in their arm. You’ve got to talk to people in jail now. Drugs kill people and cause devastation to family and friends. We deal with it every day,” Cruz said.

A lot of people seem to think marijuana is “not that big a deal,” but that’s no longer true if it ever was, Cruz said.

Today’s marijuana is about nine times stronger on average than the marijuana on the streets 20 years ago, Cruz said.

Cruz said legalizing medicinal marijuana sounds “good in theory” on humanitarian grounds, but it doesn’t seem to be working as intended in California. The key is whether doctors prescribe it only for appropriate medical conditions, he said.

He said marijuana use presents significant public health and safety issues.

The carcinogenic effect is worse than with cigarettes, and pot use impacts performance and absenteeism in the workplace and at school, Cruz said.

“This is moving backwards. For many years, we’ve been trying to get tobacco use by kids down because it’s bad for you,” Cruz said.

He said proponents argue small-time pot offenses are ruining kids’ lives by sending them to prison and leaving them with criminal records.

But Cruz said that’s not true in the commonwealth.

For first-time offenders without criminal records, by state statute, the charge is dismissed and the case is sealed upon the successful completion of a six-month, continued-without-a-finding period, Cruz said.

Cruz has also implemented a “Youthful Diversion Program,” whereby young people between the ages of 17 and 21 who are arrested on a first offense possession of marijuana or alcohol charge are given the option of a treatment program and dismissal prior to arraignment, so that no criminal record is created, he said.

“Eighty-five percent of the time, we never see the kids again,” Cruz said.

And that’s a good thing because, one way or another, when Cruz sees kids mixed up in drug use, someone is often suffering, he said.

Cruz said if the initiative passes, “Somebody’s going to get killed and it will be in my lap. I’ll be talking to the parents of the poor boy or girl and also to the parents of the kid who didn’t have a prior record and thought it wasn’t that big a deal to do drugs and drink and drive.”

Bridgewater Independent

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